Positive news since Monday’s announcement. Caution is properly expressed. Our numbers slowly return to church. Its too early for decisions on Easter, but it will certainly be a quieter celebration. Signs of some normality returning re the schools opening on 8th March. This coincides with a long-term weather forecast telling us that snow is also expected to re-visit us on or around that date too, Pope Francis has continuously reminded us that Covid is seen as both crisis and opportunity. The disparity between rich and poor has become more evident in the rollout of the vaccine. “The UK has 6 vaccines per person. The EU has 5. The US has 7, Canada has 9. Excesses can surely be given to the developing world?” Professor Luke O’Neill We have links in the parish with Colombia and Peru, and the feedback is very worrying. The vast fortunes made by the few out of the pandemic is a scandal. (“664 US billionaires see their fortunes increase 44% since beginning of pandemic.”) US Today. The opportunity to address this imbalance is more real than it has been for some time. “Go down into the underground, and pass from the hyper-virtual, fleshless world, to the suffering flesh of the poor. That is the conversation we all have to undergo. And if we don’t start there, there will be no conversion.” Pope Francis That same opportunity is also, there for us as church, and parish. We will not be the same church, or parish, post-Covid. If we presume to return to business as usual, then that opportunity is gone.
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